deviatevsDevineTell them apart

Quick tell: deviate is a verb, Devine is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“deviate” is a verb and “Devine” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#26,751
“deviate” frequency rank
#27,806
“Devine” frequency rank
54557
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature deviate Devine
Definition To go off course from; to change course; to change plans. A surname from Irish.

Letter map: deviate vs Devine

Shared letters muted; letters that set deviate and Devine apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.

7 ch
deviate
6 ch
Devine

Role in the sentence - deviate and Devine

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: deviate is averb and Devineaname. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54557, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

deviate is recorded at frequency rank #26,751, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈdiː.vi.eɪt/. Devine is at rank #27,806, tagged as aname.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 54557, this pair ranks #140,174 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of deviate vs Devine

Shared letters: deiv. Private to "deviate": at. Private to "Devine": n.

"deviate" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCV  ·  "Devine" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • deviateddeviate · deivate · devaite · deviaet · deviatte · devitae · devviate · dveiate
  • Devineddevine · deivne · devien · devinne · devnie · devvine · dveine · edvine

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "deviate" and "Devine" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "deviate" is a verb and "Devine" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "deviate" or "Devine"?
"deviate" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,751 in our English list, against #27,806 for "Devine". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "deviate" and "Devine". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "deviate" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Devine" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #140,174 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "deviate" and "Devine" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Devine vs Devito". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #140,174 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list